Loss of Privacy

I swear, you can’t make this stuff up and I can’t stop laughing. Yes, I know there is a special place in hell for laughing at this story but, it’s just too funny to not to chuckle at these people.

A jury convicted a man of second-degree domestic assault Saturday for shoving a cell phone down his girlfriend’s throat.  Prosecutors said Marlon Brando Gill, 25, of Kansas City, forced the cell phone into Melinda Abell’s mouth during a quarrel in December 2005.

Gill denied the charge, claiming that Abel had tried to swallow the phone to prevent him from finding out whom she had been calling.  Abell, 25, of Blue Springs was rushed to a hospital, where doctors removed the phone. Doctors said she nearly choked to death.

“I think he thought I’d been talking to other guys,” Abell wrote in a statement to police after the incident. “If I didn’t want him to see my phone, I would have just thrown it out the window and busted it.”

It was Gill’s second trial since his arrest more than a year ago. Jurors in July were unable to reach a verdict on a first-degree domestic assault charge, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Jurors could not agree on a sentence for Gill, which means that decision will be left up to a judge. The assault charge carries a sentence of up to seven years in prison.

This is one of many photos on Knuttz of the Tiger’s Nest Monastery.  It is the most famous monastery in Bhutan.

The Guru Rinpoche is said to have flown here on the back of a tigeress and then meditated in a cave, contained within the present structure, for three months.

The monastery (goemba in Bhutanese) was built in its present form in 1692. It suffered a devastating fire of unknown origin during the night of April 19, 1998. Speculation is that the fire was caused either by lightening or an overturned butter lamp. Old photographs and diaries were used to make the reconstruction as close to the original as possible, though there was little documentation of the wall paintings and other artwork housed inside.

Special permission is required for non-Bhutanese to visit the monastery, usually granted only to practicing Buddhists on a religous retreat. This photograph was taken from the viewpoint across the valley, the furthest point ordinary tourists can reach before being stopped by a guard.